This is the song I've been searching for for like a year... every time I tried searching for the lyrics I could remember, it turned up with an assortment of other songs that had nothing to do with it. It's one of my favorite songs, but I never knew what the name of it was which was hella frustrating. The only reason I happened to find it today is that I created a Freestyle channel on Pandora and when I was least expecting it it started playing!

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The keyboard sounds (as well as some of the note progressions) are suspiciously similar to Freestyle's "Don't Stop the Rock" (you can listen to it on YouTube here)--a favorite from my childhood, when I lived in a Miami suburb, and rap was just hitting the air waves.

Damn, that's a seriously cool song. The name "Don't Stop the Rock" sounded very familiar so I expected to recognize it but for some reason the music doesn't sound familiar aside from the general beat, instruments, and key being similar to a lot of Freestyle music that I've been listening to. When I say "Freestyle" I mean the genre. I didn't realize there was actually a group named Freestyle... this makes me wonder if the entire genre was named after the electro group. It would make sense, as Freestyle got started around then (early 80's) in Miami & New York. Looks like I have some more history to read up on :)

After listening to Don't Stop the Rock, I'm also reminded of Salt N Pepa's "Push It" (another song I used to listen to a lot as a kid)... 52 seconds into the song, there's a background synth line that comes in that sounds very similar to part of Don't Stop the Rock:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zalbxUmbIv0

Holy cow... I just put 2+2 together. I mentioned recently in an earlier post that Debbie Deb's When I Hear Music is pretty much my alltime favorite Freestyle (the genre) song. I was obsessed with it as a kid, and I've been even more obsessed with it as an adult once I rediscovered it. Well, I was reading up on her and realized that she really didn't do anything except sing the vocals [update: and help write the lyrics]... the guy who actually wrote the music who was probably the real genius behind it is named "Pretty Tony". He just invited her into his studio one day, and asked her to sing over the background music, and suddenly she was a megastar. I just figured out that Pretty Tony is actually the same genius who is behind "Don't Stop the Rock" as well:

"Trinere and Pretty Tony had a son, Brandon C. Butler. In 1993, the last single that Trinere would release would be "When I Hear Music," a re-mix of another Pretty Tony production with Debbie Deb. Trinere says that "Pretty Tony put his foot in this one."

Woah. This has been a crazy trip down memory lane for me. I was up to an ungodly hour last night looking up music I haven't heard in 20+ years. I ♥ the Internet! I didn't know there was a category for the music. I didn't even know what electro or freestyle was--we called it all rap at the time, hip hop included. But then, we were military brats with no direct contact with Miami culture outside of the radio waves.

It's also interesting to note that the Beastie Boys songs they played on air then/there had much raunchier lyrics than what ended up on the albums. My brother has remarked to me that no one else seems to know their "Bend it over here, Babydoll/and let all ten inches slide up the back" lyric, for example. I wish I still had the tapes we recorded off the radio in those days. It would make for some interesting listening, I'm sure.

Anyway, without further ado, here are a bunch of the songs I was able to find last night that I used to hear on the radio back then. I'll start with the one I was happiest to find, then do the rest in alphabetical order. Some still sound awesome to me; others I know all the words to, but don't get the same kick of excitement from. The videos are often from another planet--I'd never seen any of them before.

Noel - Silent Morning. If you like this as much as I do, I'd also recommend checking out Information Society. I don't think they'd count as freestyle, but they have some great songs like Mirrorshades.

I'm definitely hooked on Trinere's "They're Playing Our Song" now. I also managed to find a cool Pretty Tony song: Jam the Box.

Also, since you're familiar with "Push It", you may be amused by L'Trimm's Grab It. I can't find an mp3 of this--apparently, it was a local hit, but didn't get the exposure that their Cars With the Boom did.

Yeah... a lot of those you list are the stuff I've been listening to for the past year or so. I definitely remember Grab It, and I think Cars With the Boom although it never made much of an impression (haven't heard either of those in a *long* time though!)

I definitely think of Information Society as New Wave, not Freestyle. But for some reason I saw some places that said they were Freestyle which is what made me check them out.

Regarding Planet Rock, I just posted a new entry focusing on that and Don't Stop the Rock, because I'm very impressed with both. Planet Rock I think I remember hearing in mixes on the radio, but I never knew who was responsible for it or saw the video. What an amazing video! (I didn't your comment here until just after I made the post.)